Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Monday, October 10, 2016

Shakespeare, Richard III, the Rise of Hitler and Trumpism

In the early 1590s, Shakespeare sat down to write a play that addressed a problem: How could a great country wind up being governed by a sociopath?... “Richard
III,” which proved to be one of Shakespeare’s first great hits,
explores how this loathsome, perverse monster actually attained the
English throne. As the play conceives it, Richard’s villainy was readily
apparent to everyone. There was no secret about his fathomless
cynicism, cruelty and treacherousness, no glimpse of anything redeemable
in him and no reason to believe that he could govern the country
effectively.... Shakespeare
brilliantly shows all of these types of enablers working together in
the climactic scene of this ascent.

Richard III's remains were recently found under a parking lot in England

Sound familiar? Richard III had a twisted spine. Trump is just twisted.

Right now I'm reading James Shapiro's sequel - Year of Lear - 1605 - central was the Gunpowder terrorist plot to blow up Parliament and the entire downtown London and kill much of the English ruling class and an estimated 30,000 people would have died in the subsequent firestorm. Yes, Virginia, terrorism is not a new thing - and this was religious terrorism by Catholics hoping to bring down the protestant leadership. ISIS in its various forms has been around since religion was invented thousands of years ago.

I saw Emily Carding's one woman one hour portrayal of Richard III at the NYC Fringe in August but didn't view Shakespeare's Richard III story in the context of the 2016 election.

In the early 1590s, Shakespeare sat down to write a play that addressed a problem: How could a great country wind up being governed by a sociopath?

The
problem was not England’s, where a woman of exceptional intelligence
and stamina had been on the throne for more than 30 years, but it had
long preoccupied thoughtful people. Why, the Bible brooded, was the
kingdom of Judah governed by a succession of disastrous kings? How could
the greatest empire in the world, ancient Roman historians asked
themselves, have fallen into the hands of a Caligula?

For
his theatrical test case, Shakespeare chose an example closer to home:
the brief, unhappy reign in 15th-century England of King Richard III.
Richard, as Shakespeare conceived him, was inwardly tormented by
insecurity and rage, the consequences of a miserable, unloved childhood
and a twisted spine that made people recoil at the sight of him. Haunted
by self-loathing and a sense of his own ugliness — he is repeatedly
likened to a boar or rooting hog — he found refuge in a feeling of
entitlement, blustering overconfidence, misogyny and a merciless
penchant for bullying.

From
this psychopathology, the play suggests, emerged the character’s weird,
obsessive determination to reach a goal that looked impossibly far off,
a position for which he had no reasonable expectation, no proper
qualification and absolutely no aptitude.

“Richard
III,” which proved to be one of Shakespeare’s first great hits,
explores how this loathsome, perverse monster actually attained the
English throne. As the play conceives it, Richard’s villainy was readily
apparent to everyone. There was no secret about his fathomless
cynicism, cruelty and treacherousness, no glimpse of anything redeemable
in him and no reason to believe that he could govern the country
effectively.

His
success in obtaining the crown depended on a fatal conjunction of
diverse but equally self-destructive responses from those around him.
The play locates these responses in particular characters — Lady Anne,
Lord Hastings, the Earl of Buckingham and so forth — but it also manages
to suggest that these characters sketch a whole country’s collective
failure. Taken together, they itemize a nation of enablers.

First,
there are those who trust that everything will continue in a normal
way, that promises will be kept, alliances honored and core institutions
respected. Richard is so obviously and grotesquely unqualified for the
supreme position of power that they dismiss him from their minds. Their
focus is always on someone else, until it is too late. They do not
realize quickly enough that what seemed impossible is actually
happening. They have relied on a structure that proves unexpectedly
fragile.

Second,
there are those who cannot keep in focus that Richard is as bad as he
seems to be. They see perfectly well that he has done this or that
ghastly thing, but they have a strange penchant for forgetting, as if it
were hard work to remember just how awful he is. They are drawn
irresistibly to normalize what is not normal.

Third,
there are those who feel frightened or impotent in the face of bullying
and the menace of violence. “I’ll make a corpse of him that disobeys,”
Richard threatens, and the opposition to his outrageous commands somehow
shrivels away. It helps that he is an immensely wealthy and privileged
man, accustomed to having his way, even when his way is in violation of
every moral norm.

Fourth,
there are those who persuade themselves that they can take advantage of
Richard’s rise to power. They see perfectly well how destructive he is,
but they are confident that they will stay safely ahead of the tide of
evil or manage to seize some profit from it. These allies and followers
help him ascend from step to step, collaborating in his dirty work and
watching the casualties mount with cool indifference. They are, as
Shakespeare imagines it, among the first to go under, once Richard has
used them to obtain his end.

Fifth,
and perhaps strangest of all, there are those who take vicarious
pleasure in the release of pent-up aggression, in the black humor of it
all, in the open speaking of the unspeakable. “Your eyes drop millstones
when fools’ eyes fall tears,” Richard says to the murderers whom he has
hired to kill his brother. “I like you, lads.” It is not necessary to
look around to find people who embody this category of collaborators.
They are we, the audience, charmed again and again by the villain’s
jaunty outrageousness, by his indifference to the ordinary norms of
human decency, by the lies that seem to be effective even though no one
believes them, by the seductive power of sheer ugliness. Something in us
enjoys every minute of his horrible ascent to power.

Shakespeare
brilliantly shows all of these types of enablers working together in
the climactic scene of this ascent. The scene — anomalously enough in a
society that was a hereditary monarchy but oddly timely for ourselves —
is an election. Unlike “Macbeth” (which introduced into the English
language the word “assassination”), “Richard III” does not depict a
violent seizure of power. Instead there is the soliciting of popular
votes, complete with a fraudulent display of religious piety, the
slandering of opponents and a grossly exaggerated threat to national
security.

WHY
an election? Shakespeare evidently wanted to emphasize the element of
consent in Richard’s rise. He is not given a robust consent; only a
municipal official and a few of the villain’s carefully planted henchmen
shout their vote: “God save Richard, England’s royal king!”

But
the others assembled in the crowd, whether from indifference or from
fear or from the catastrophically mistaken belief that there is no real
difference between Richard and the alternatives, are silent, “like dumb
statues or breathing stones.” Not speaking out — simply not voting — is
enough to bring the monster to power.

Shakespeare’s
words have an uncanny ability to reach out beyond their original time
and place and to speak directly to us. We have long looked to him, in
times of perplexity and risk, for the most fundamental human truths. So
it is now. Do not think it cannot happen, and do not stay silent or
waste your vote.

Pretty interesting stuff.

Now where does Hitler come into this? I am not calling Trump Hitler,
just talking about the process of Hitler's rise to power having some
similarities among the enablers (though I wouldn't be surprised to see
our home grown version of a brown shirt army arising after the election
--- Hitler failed in his early attempts to take power and a street army
helped intimidate people - just like the current Trump social media army
is doing. I wrote about the Hitler story recently. As per my morning post --Thoughts on the post election: Repulicans Will Try to Impeach Hillary, Bernie Supporters Will pressure Hillary from the Left --- interesting post-election times to come.

I was watching tv with my mother the other day and flipped to some show that had Hitler playing with his dog. I looked at my mother and sarcastically said, "See he wasn't all bad. He loved his dog." Within 30 seconds the narrator informed us that Hitler killed his dog while testing out poison. 12 million people and a dog---saved from Bolshevism. Where do I sign up for the celebration? Geesh! Roseanne McCosh

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.